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SEAL book challenges White House's Osama bin Laden account

The raid is very much in the backdrop of the presidential campaign. | AP Photo

Bissonnette left the Navy as a chief petty officer, a senior enlisted leader. A Navy spokeswoman said the nature of Bissonnette’s separation from the service was not releasable.

Pentagon officials have asked reporters not to use Bissonnette’s real name out of concern for his safety, and he has already been the target of at least one online death threat. The Middle East Media Research Institute, which tracks Arab-language jihadist postings, quoted a post that concluded “We ask Allah to kill him sooner, not later.”

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On the morning after Obama’s announcement about bin Laden’s death, a senior defense official told reporters at the Pentagon that “The American team engaged in a firefight, and as indicated last night, Osama bin Laden did resist.”

The official also said this: “Through most of the 40 minutes during which U.S. special operators were on the compound, they were engaged in a firefight and successive clearing of the — it was very deliberate. But for most of the period there, there was a firefight.”

The official also echoed a White House narrative that bin Laden had used at least one of his wives as a “shield,” suggesting that he had hidden behind one of them as he “resisted” the SEAL special operators who raided his compound.

However, according to “No Easy Day,” bin Laden was unarmed and was shot when he poked his head out of his door, according to The Associated Press. Bissonnette also wrote that he and his teammates mocked the official story line about a “40 minute firefight” at the compound.

“The raid was being reported like a bad action movie,” he writes. “At first, it was funny because it was so wrong.”

The raid is very much in the backdrop of the presidential campaign — Obama and Vice President Joe Biden have often mentioned bin Laden’s death on the trail. The president also made a surprise trip to Afghanistan in May on the anniversary of the raid.

Administration officials have offered revised or slightly different accounts of the Abbottabad raid on several occasions since it was first announced, but always piecemeal and without a single official narrative making clear which early details were incorrect.

For example, then-CIA Director Leon Panetta told the PBS “Newshour” in an interview the week of the raid that he believed bin Laden was unarmed but that “there were some firefights that were going on as these guys were making their way up the staircase in that compound. And when they got up there, there were some threatening moves that were made that clearly represented a clear threat to our guys. And that’s the reason they fired.”

But unnamed intelligence officials told The New Yorker that the SEALs had burst into bin Laden’s room and “bear-hugged” one of the women inside for fear she was going to detonate a suicide vest and shooting her in the leg. Meanwhile, in that account, bin Laden was momentarily face to face with the special operators who killed him.

All along, defense officials would not confirm details given to White House reporters. For months, the Pentagon would not confirm the special operators involved with the raid belonged to the Naval Special Warfare Development Group or even that they’d flown to Abbottabad in Black Hawk helicopters.

WHAT DOES IT MATTER,WHETHER HE HAD WEAPON AT THE TIME OR NOT. WHY DOES IT MATTER WHETHER IT TOOK 40min OR 4min? TRY FOR ONE MINUTE TO REMEMBER WHAT THIS NUT CASE DID IN THE LOWER MANHATTAN AREA...HE DIDN'T USE A GUN THAT DAY EITHER BUT IT DOESN'T MAKE WHAT HE WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY LESS HORRIFIC.

BEAR HUG OR NOT, I DON'T CARE AND NOR DOES THE FAMILIES OF THOSE WHO WERE LOST. OBAMA MADE THE CALL AND GOT IT DONE. READ BETWEEN THE LINES & STOP FALLING FOR THE SENSATIONALISM.

All these seals have done is shown the level of dishonor they'll stoop to because they disrespect the president. 240 years of military leadership and valor don't seem to mean anything to them!

As for the details, it appears that the two versions of the story BOTH had to come from the guys who went in, and if there's any discrepancy *they own it.* If they were so bothered by the white house release after the raid, they had every right to correct it -- but didn't. I'm convinced that's because they know that's what they told the president.

240 years of valor, followed by a few disgusting weanies who care more about hatred and money than about our country!

Maybe the SEALS walked in, OBL put up his hands...and they shot him anyway....because a dead OBL is a better than the mess an alive OBL would make. But honestly...WHO CARES?!?!!? He'd DEAD, DEAD, DEAD!!! Maybe we told the story of him using a woman as a shield to make him look like a coward in the eyes of AQ. Maybe WE planted the porn as well. Again...WHO CARES!!!??!?!?

The vast majority of people fully believe that a snake of a Politician (Mr. Sotero) desperate for re-election and trying to do so on the backs of the exploits of our brave heroes - is the lying liar and the SEAL who was there on the ground is telling it like it is.

Like it or not this money grubber may hate obama but this book, and all of its drama, will support the effort this president went through to kill the 9/11 architect. The idiot Bush should have done this and then asked Joe Biden to head up a drone committee to take out Sadam Hussein and arrange to put in a friendly. The fools had to have a conventional invasion of Iraq to win an election. What a bunch of scumbags. Vote DEM.

You can't downplay President Obama's role at all. He was the president that ordered the mission using the Navy Seals. He could have used a drone attack or a bomb but he chose the Navy Seals.

Oh yes, we can downplay that. 0bama was on the golf course. He is still wering golf clothes, and someone threw a jacket on him, thats too big. The decesion makers weer Panetta and Hillary. All 0bama said was "okie dokie, call me when iits done". The man is NOT a leader. He is just a figure head living large wih his wife in the White House on our money, lavish vacations, parties, AF-1, golf. Whats not to like. Michelle will throw a fit if he loses. She loves that lifestyle.

The idiot Bush should have done this and then asked Joe Biden to head up a drone committee to take out Sadam Hussein and arrange to put in a friendly. The fools had to have a conventional invasion of Iraq to win an election. What a bunch of scumbags. Vote DEM.